In mining, construction and other applications there are situations where a person is required to be working at heights or in situations where they need to be tethered to an attachment point for safety reasons. Typically, the person is required to wear personal protective or safety equipment or the like that may include a body harness and a tether connectable to the attachment point.
Presently, persons are attaching their personal protective equipment to attachment points or structures intended for other purposes. For example, persons may be suspending themselves from a conveyor or a beam of a mine roof, which may result in these structures becoming overstressed and potentially lead to failure.
In particular, in some applications the attachment points or structures may be attached to or form part of supporting a wall or roof such as a retaining wall, rock wall or mineshaft roof and it is difficult to determine if the attachment points or structures are adequately supported by the underlying supporting wall or roof.
In addition, these attachment points or structures may not be part of regular safety checks to ensure that they are fit for purpose and do not typically include any indication that the attachment points or structures are fit for purpose and that safety checks have been carried out.
The invention disclosed herein seeks to overcome one or more of the above identified problems or at least provide a useful alternative.